twiddle

Yet, Eggers was not one to sit and twiddle his thumbs.

From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024

"It's July 2023. Building out the leadership of that operation today, so they can sit around and twiddle their thumbs for the next six months would be nuts," he said.

From Reuters ● Jul. 18, 2023

During offseasons, she’d twiddle her thumbs, unsure of what exactly to do with herself.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2022

We have no more time to twiddle our collective thumbs.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 11, 2020

“I twiddle about with lines of verse now and then, but it’s only a hobby. In any case, thank you for indulging me.”

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

Abrasive, shallow and giddily watchable, her Wow Platinum — what a name! — twiddles her clawed fingers like a femme fatale dead certain she can charm her way to the top.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2025

Liberated from chronology and fact, the comedy-drama twiddles the timeline of Catherine’s career and marriage.

From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2021

“We can’t afford to allow more devastation to be caused to the park while the Park Service twiddles their thumbs trying to come up with an expensive plan,” Gosar said in a statement this week.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 26, 2016

Eye blinks, finger twiddles, fidgeting — there’s no detail too small for the timer to add to the exposure sheet, ensuring the team in LA maximum control over what the South Korean animation studio delivers.

From The Verge ● Oct. 25, 2015

It twiddles along for a minute through the air and lands on the brown ottoman, which enrages my mother because it didn’t fall fast enough or land hard enough.

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson

You could follow the text at the bottom of the screen, but most people just twiddled their thumbs and waited.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2025

They all largely twiddled their thumbs as accusations mounted that much was unhealthy in the GET-THIN campaign.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2021

Alma’s poltergeist not only twiddled necklaces but sprang them from shop counters; it whipped saucers across rooms, upended eiderdowns, spun rings on to fingers.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 19, 2020

Ever since Singapore, Kim’s negotiators—many of whom have been at their jobs since the arms talks with the Clinton administration, a quarter-century ago—have pretty much twiddled their thumbs in their sessions with the U.S. team.

From Slate ● Oct. 4, 2018

He twiddled his fat thumbs and fidgeted as he watched Dumbledore fasten his traveling cloak, and Harry zip up his jacket.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

“It’s not like we’re twiddling our thumbs and trying to get some money. This is a very serious condition,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2026

Meanwhile Miami, which had been ranked behind Notre Dame, and like the Irish, had been inactive and twiddling thumbs over conference championship weekend, vaulted over South Bend.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025

"Now we can stay until 4pm twiddling our thumbs, without fish."

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2025

The court granted cert to the case on Wednesday, after twiddling its thumbs for 16 days, and it scheduled oral arguments for April 22.

From Slate ● Mar. 2, 2024

Wasn’t silly, wasn’t always twiddling her plaits, didn’t tattle or gossip, didn’t hit boys over the head with books or scrape the back of your neck with a sweetgum burr when you weren’t looking.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns